Automobile lamp-dimmer.



J. D. CARTER.

AUTOMOBILE LAMP DIMMER.

APPLICATION FILED NOV.23. 1914.

Patented July 27, 1915.

1V1 Meme:

(1 bbo'mun I JOHN D. CARTIER, OF DENVER, COLORADO.

AUTOMOBILE LaMr-nr MnR.

Specification of Letters JPatent.

. Application fi-led November 23,1914. Serial No. $73,431."

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known t-hat I..-JOHX D. CARTER, a citizen of the United States,residing atthe city and county of DEIH'QI' and State of Colorado, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Automobile Lamp-Dimmers: and I do declare the following to be a full, clear, and exactdescription of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in theart to which it appertains to make and use the same. reference being hadto the accompanying drawings, and to the characters of reference markedthereon. which form a part of this specification.

My invention relates to improvements in means for dimming the light oflamps employed on automobiles and other vehicles, my object being toprovide a construction adapted to comply with the requirements of theordinances in certain cities. prohibiting the use of the exceedinglybrilliant lights which have heretofore been carried by automobiles.owing to the fact that these lights, being of dazzling brightness,result in blinding the eyes of pedestrians and others to such an extentas to produce or result in accidents. It is important that a device ofthis character. while adapted to perform the light dimming requirement,shall at the same time. so far as is practicable. result in as littleloss of light as possible. In other words. itis not so much a diminutionof light that is required, as that the light of the lamps be throwndownwardly upon the ground. as the surface of the street or road infront of the machine. in order that the driver or chauffeur may have thenecessary illumination to enable him to see a considerable distance infront of the machine, and

thus prepare to steer the machine in the event of short turns or in caseother machines or vehicles are in front of him. Hence. an importantobject of my improvement is to provide a device which, while performingthe dimming requirement, shall at the same time be of such character asto con' serve to a large extent the entire illuminating power of thelamps. Lamp dimmers, as heretofore constructed or arranged. so far as Iam aware, have been designed with one object alone in view, namely, todirect the rays from the upper half of the reflector or the half abovethe horizontal axis of the lamp, downwardly upon the street, leaving thelight of the lower half of the lamp entirely unobstructed. In myimprovement, I

Patented ma at, m5.

provide for dimming the entire light from v the lamp, and at the sametime, conserve as far as is practicable, the entire illumination for thebetter lighting of the road or street in front of the machine; to thisend I employ a cylindrical casing adapted to be readily attached to theforward part of the lamp; in this casing, I place a series of baffleplates whose upper portions or the portions in the upper half of thecasing are semicircular in, shape and inclined downwardly from the reartoward the front, the

' inclination of the said plates varying in degree, so that all of theseplates from the lowermost to the uppermost shall have a tendency todeliver the rays of light upon'the ground and at the mately the samedistance in front of the machine. In the lower half of this casing,these plates are vertically disposed and arranged in parallel relation,the number of plates in the lower half of the casing being greater thanon the upper half, though the two sides of the plates are connectedtogether, as this arrangement is best adapted to form a substantial anddurable article. By virtue of the fact that the plates in the lower halfof the casing are vertically disposed and in parallel relation, and thatthere is a considerable number of them, whereby front of the center ofthe lamp. In other words, as soon as the person in front of the lampmoves slightly to one side of the center in either direction, thesedirectly reflected rays no longer strike the eye, with the result thatthe illumination in front of the machine, while suflicient for allpracticable purposes,

has not the result of directly reflected rays,

and consequently, cannot reach the eye of the person with such strengthas to be annoying or blinding,

Having briefly outlined my improVedconstruction, I will proceed todescrlbe the same,

same or approxi 2 is asection taken on the line 22, Fig. 1,

illustrating the dimmer applied to an automobile lamp. Fig. 3 is adiagrammatic view 7 illustrating a number of the vertically disposedparallel plates belonging to the lower half of the dimmer. In this view,the plates areshown in horizontal section and in plan view.

. The same reference characters indicate the same parts in all theviews.

Let the numeral-5 designate the cylindrical casing of my improvement.The front I edge of this casing is formed into a bead 6 which is turnedaround a strengthening wire 7 in the ordinary way. The rear edge of thiscasing is also provided with a similar bead or rib 8, including astrengthening wire 9. Applied to the rear portion of the casing at thetop and bottom, are two angular brackets 10, whose horizontal parts 12are soldered or otherwise secured to the casing, while their parts 13which extend outwardly from the casing,'are bifurcated, forming parts14, which are formed into eyes or perforated to receive a. connectingpin 15,which also passes through an eye 16 of a bolt 17, whose rearportion enters the slot 18 of a bracket 19 secured exteriorly to thelamp casing 22. The threaded portion 20 of this bolt extends rearwardlyof the bracket and a securing nut 21 is applied thereto. By virtue ofthis construction, the dimmer is secured to the automobile lamp in sucha manner as to be readily detachable. The lamp is provided with alens-holding collar 23 surrounded by the rear extremity of the casing 5,said-col lar forming a substantial bearing surface, whereby, as thescrews 21 are tightened on the bolt 17, the casing may be securelyconnected with the lamp in such a manner as to prevent independentvibration or movement. Within the upper half of the lamp casing, islocated a number of arch-shaped baflle plates respectively designated bythe numerals 24, 25, 26 and 27. The lower edges of these arches lieapproximately in a plane passed horizontally through the axis of thelamp. These plates. as they extend upwardly to form the arches, areinclined, whereby the rear edges are higher than their forward edges.the inclination of the series of archshaped plates being such that therays of light from the lamp reflector 28 will be reflected to the groundat approximately .the same distance in front of the lamp. In otherwords. the uppermost arch-shaped plate 24 has the greatest degree ofinclination, while the inclination of the other plates diminishes indegree'downwardly'. The inclination of all -of-these plates is such thatthe rays pass- .eye. even if the eye were low enough ing from the upperhalf of the reflector 28, will all be reflected downwardly, and causedto strike the ground a comparatively short distance forward of themachine, their direction being such that it is impossible for the raysfrom the upper half of the reflector to annoy people in the vicinity ofthe lamp. \Vithin the lower half of the casing 5, a series. ofvertically disposed parallel plates 29'are located, their lower edgesbeing secured to the inner surface of the casing, while their upperextremities are secured to the arch shaped plates 24 to 27, inclusive.For instance, the nine centrally located plates 29 have their upperextremities connected with the lowermost arch-shaped plate '27. The twovoutermost plates of this central series. are-coniiected with the rearedges of the arch 27, while the intermediate plates are connected withthe higher portions of the arch, according to their location.Consequently, the center plate of this series is the longest, while theother plates diminish in length downwardly to the extremities of thearch. From this it -will be understood that a relatively large number ofthese plates extend above the horizontal center of the casing, thusfurther facilitating the bathing or dimming action of my improvedconstruction. Again, as illustrated in the drawing, four of the plates29 are connectedat their upper extremities with the arch-shaped plate26, two of these last named plates 29 being arranged .onLeach side ofthe series of plates 29-connected with the arch-shaped plate 27. In thesame manner, four of the plates 29 are connected with the arch-shapedplates 25 and four others with the arch-shaped plate ,24, thearrangement of the two pairs of Y plained in speaking of the plates 29connected with the arch-shaped plate 26.

By referring to Fig. 3, it may be assumed that the six parallel vmembersconstitute a corresponding number of plates 29 of my improvedconstruction, and that 30 designates a point from which rays of lightissue from the lamp or reflector in the direction of the said plates.The dotted lines 31 diverge from the point 30 and the space indicated bythe transversely arranged dotted line 32. indicates the greatesthorizontal area exposed to thedirect reflection of the rays of lightwhere my improved device is employed- In other words. assuming that aperson is in front-of the lamp and standing anywhere beyond theextremities of the transverse line 32, in the direction of said line.the directly reflected rays cannot be seen. Hence. it is only within acomparatively narrow area in front of the lamp that these directlyreflected rays could strike the to receive rays from the lower half ofthe maaata 33, is the ordinary electric lamp employed, in automobiles.lltl Hence it is unnecessary that the same should be described more indetail.

From the foregoing description, the use of my improved lamp dimmer willbe readily understood. In order to prepare the ordinary lamp 33 fornsewith my improved dimmer, it is only necessaryto apply two anglebrackets 19 to the casing of the lamp. In applying my device, it must beunderstood that the bolts 17 are hinged or pivoted on the pins lowhichconnect the bolts with the angle bracket 10. Hence, in attaching thedimmer to the lamp, it will only be necessary to throw the bolts 17 intothe slots 18 of the two lamp brackets, and then apply the nuts 21 to therearwa-rdly protruding threaded extremities of these bolts, and screwthe nuts sulhciently tight for securing purposes.

ile the arch-shaped plates 2A to 27, inclusive, may be continuous, asillustrated in the drawing, the centrally located vertically disposedparallel plate 29 is extended up? wardly as shown at 34 and is connectedwith the casing 5 at both top and bottom. When this form of constructionis used, the archshaped plates 24: to 27, inclusive, are made in twoparts, and their upper edges are soldered, or otherwise secured to theextension 34 of the central plate 29. It is evident, however, thatthe-invention is not limited to the details of construction here-inshown and described, as many modifications may be employed within thescope of the appended claims.

' Having thus described my invention, what I claim is,

1. A dimmer for automobile lamps comprising a casing the latter providedwith a number of archehaped plates arranged one above another andsuitably spaced in its up per part, said plates being variably inclineddownwardly from their rear edges.

2. A lamp dimmer comprising a casing adapted to occupy a position infront of the lamp and provided with an arch-shaped ballle plate locatedin the upper half of the casing and downwardly inclined from its rearextremity, and a number of vertically disposed baille plates arranged inparallel relation and suitably spaced in the lower part of the casing,substantially as described. I

3. A lamp dier comprising a casing, the latter provided with a number ofarchshaped plates lmated in the upper portion thereof, and a. number offlat bame plates arranged in its lower part.

A. A lamp dimmer comprising a casing, said casing provided witharch-shaped bafile plates located in the upper half of the casing anddownwardly inclined from their rear extremities, and a number ofvertically disposed battle plates arranged in parallel relation andsuitably spaced in the lower part of the casing, substantially asdescribed.

5. A dimmer for automobile lamps comprising a number of arch-shapedplates arranged in'the upper portion of the lamp. and anumberof flatbame plates arranged in the lower portion of said lamp, substar'r tiallyas described.

In testimony whereof ll atlix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

' JOHN D. CARTER. Witnesses:

Maze limmr, A. Eisner OBRIEN.

